Some of the most vulnerable individuals in San Jose, California are being targeted by a group of suspected robbers. In connection with a series of robberies targeting 177 elderly women in the San Francisco Bay area, at least six suspects have been detained. The San Jose Police Department arrested six men as part of a year-long investigation into the “prolific robbery crew” that targeted the city’s elderly women, particularly in the area’s Little Saigon neighborhood, according to an announcement from Police Chief Anthony Mata on Wednesday.
According to the Daily Mail, Anthony Michael Robinson, 24; Cameron Alonzo Moody, 27; Derje Damond Blanks, 23; Hassani Burleson Ramsey 24; Clarence Jackson , 21 ; and Malik Short are among the four men charged in connection with the string of 177 robberies.
Why did these men target old ladies, according to San Jose Police Chief Mata? The answer is straightforward: “They believed that they were easy targets and that they were going to have large sums of cash.” According to police officials, the motive was simple.
This band of six men is said to have committed as many as 177 robberies in the Bay Area, including at least 70 in San Jose. Unfortunately, several of the elderly old ladies were injured during the assault.
From October 2020 to September 2021, the group carried out nearly daily attacks on old ladies. When robbing elderly Asians, they established a rhythm. They’d profile elderly Asian women who were walking near businesses’ parking lots and follow them. The robbers would block the victim’s automobile with their own vehicle before snatching her handbag and other valuables. If the victim did not comply quickly enough, they would smash windows; if necessary, they would use shammers to destroy cars.
“These victims… were being essentially hunted,” prosecutor Marisa McKeown of the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office said to The Washington Post.
Three of the six men taken into custody in connection with this string of robberies were arrested in September, putting a halt to the string of heists. Three more males have been detained and handcuffed to the station since three more individuals have been arrested.
Four males, all in their late teens or early twenties, were arrested and charged with aggravated robbery, elder abuse, and assault likely to cause serious bodily injury. If they are convicted of the robberies, they will face decades in prison.
Elderly Asian women in the San Francisco Bay Area haven’t felt safe for several years, with the increase in anti-Asian violence.
“If you were an Asian female in certain parts of San Jose, it would feel — and it actually was — unsafe [at] certain times of the day to go to the bank, to go to the grocery store,” McKeown told the Post. “And so it absolutely created an atmosphere where … on any given day, you could have been victimized.”
District Attorney Jeffrey Rosen stated at a press conference: “I have a message to all the hardworking and good people of Little Saigon and to the people who have preyed upon them. This is my neighborhood… and it’s Chief Mata’s neighborhood.”
It’s great to see the cops take such a strong and rapid stance in apprehending these offenders. Hopefully, this will provide elderly women who have been assaulted some comfort – as well as send a message to any would-be criminals that San Jose does not tolerate this type of behavior.
